This isn't a photoshop. It's a picture of the giant gippsland, a worm that reaches up to nine feet in length don't worry, they don't usally grow longer than three feet long. Yeah, it's pretty much just alive for the sake of giving you nightmares.

The worm takes up to five years to mature and can actually live for a full decade. If you're screaming just looking at these photos, there is one thing that might make you feel a little better, the giant gippsland rarely comes to the surface during its entire life -though that does mean that if you visit Australia they're going to be hanging out, writhing under your feet. Well, you will probably actually hear the audible gurgles their bodies make as they slither underground.

Think of them next time you have a hard time sleeping, just think of these monster worms and then you'll be motivated to get up out of bed and go do something since you won't be sleeping any time soon anyway.

My dad was from the Gippsland region and used to often tell us about the giant worms that made a woofing sound when they moved. Eventually it became a family joke to say "when worms go woof" instead of talking about flying pigs. We had to eat our words when he took us to the Giant Worm Museum

Finally, there's proof! Nobody ever believed me, but I saw one of these huge worms in Oklahoma when I was about 14. It scared the crap out of me and I wasn't sure whether it was a worm (but worms don't get that big) or a scaleless snake (but snakes don't burrow into the ground in about 1 second). Now I know.